EDD Hearing Postponed, Sen. Nielsen says “This is Outrageous Political Gamesmanship.”

Senator Jim Nielsen issued the following statement regarding the indefinite postponement of a joint legislative hearing on the mismanagement of the Employment Development Department (EDD) scheduled for Aug. 24:

“There are hundreds of thousands of Californians struggling to put food on the table and keep a roof over their heads because of Governor Newsom’s gross mismanagement of the EDD.

“Most of these folks lost their jobs because of the governor’s mandated shutdowns, and can’t get through to the EDD to get their unemployment benefits, but the EDD has paid out an estimated $31 billion in fraudulent claims.

“As the LA Times recently reported, ‘As of July 31, there was a backlog of 216,000 claims that had not been approved within 21 days. The week ending on that date saw the EDD receive 3.4 million calls — it was able to answer only 248,000 of them.’

“Clearly, the governor is trying to dodge the massive negative news coverage this important informational hearing would have generated ahead of the recall election.

“This is outrageous political gamesmanship.”

In July 2021 alone, Nielsen’s office worked with 479 constituents in Senate District 4 who are having problems with EDD. For six months in a row, the office has had record-breaking numbers of EDD cases:

• Feb. – 274
• Mar. – 275
• April – 306
• May — 447
• June – 475
•  July – 479

This postponed comes after Assemblyman James Gallagher (R-Yuba City) said  Democrats in Sacramento indefinitely postponed the only scheduled legislative hearing designed to provide oversight over the state’s mismanagement of wildfire prevention.

The hearing had been called following the release of a bombshell report exposing how Gavin Newsom’s misled the public about his wildfire prevention efforts and cut $150 million from CAL FIRE’s wildfire prevention budget.

“I’m once again in complete disgust with our corrupt state government,” said Assemblyman James Gallagher (R-Yuba City). “The Democrat Supermajority is more interested in politics and protecting their Governor than getting to the bottom of why our state is burning.”

“I can understand why the Governor and his allies in the Legislature want to avoid any oversight of this issue, especially less than 30 days before a recall election. Californians are literally running for their lives as a result of their deceptive politics and failure to act.”

Last month, the Supermajority in the California State Assembly voted down a proposal by Gallagher that would have funded critical wildfire prevention (video).